Remembering Volunteer Patrick Gleeson
Volunteer Patrick Gleeson, of Killowney, Ballymackey, was the third eldest in a family of 12 - six boys and six girls. Veteran Republican Dan Gleeson was a younger brother. Their mother’s name was Margaret (née Bourke). For generations, the family had been blacksmiths, and were also involved with the Fenian movement.
As a boy Patrick was struck in the eye by a spark and had to attend a hospital in Dublin where he was operated on. It was probably because of the injury that Patrick never became a blacksmith. Instead, he operated farm machinery for local farmers. Like a lot of people in his parish, he joined the volunteers in the early stages in 1916. The GAA and Gaelic League appeared to be important recruiting agencies at the time. Paddy, Dan, and some of the other brothers were active during the Black and Tans war. They played their part in the sealing off of Borrisokane village and the subsequent assault on the RIC barracks there.
On March 3, 1923, during the Civil War, a party of Free State soldiers based in Cloughjordan arrived at the Gleeson home at Killowney, Ballymackey and took Patrick away. The soldiers were riding bicycles on what was known as a bicycle patrol. Also picked up on that day was a local man named Kenneally. The soldiers marched the two prisoners ahead of them, sometimes carrying them on the crossbars of their bicycles, back to their barracks in Cloughjordan. The barracks was in fact a private house that had been commandeered and so had no detention cells.
The prisoners were taken inside, and they sat down beside the fire. They were inside what was known as what was called a day room and they had many visitors, both friends and family, that evening. Later that night the men were asked did they wanted to go to the toilet as it was then bedtime.
They declined, but then Vol Gleeson changed his mind and requested to go. The toilet was outside. He was accompanied by Flannigan and a sergeant. This was odd to begin with, the two most senior officers escorting a prisoner to the toilet. Very soon afterwards shots rang out. Gleeson was riddled with bullets, suffering eight wounds in all. Flannigan and the sergeant claimed that Gleeson had tried to escape.
Years later, a man met Dan Gleeson in Nenagh and told him that he had been a Free State soldier in Cloughjordan when this atrocity occurred.
“I was in charge of the guard that night when they took your brother out. It was my duty to escort the prisoner outside, but I was over-ruled by Lt Flannigan and the sergeant. Because of the incident, the next morning the soldiers refused to obey orders until Flannigan and the sergeant were taken away, which they were.”
According to the book ‘Survivors’, Free State forces had attempted to pick up the flying column in the area but had failed to do this and suffered some casualties in the process. Republican sources believe that Flannigan and the sergeant were sent to the area by their masters in Dublin with specific instructions to dispose of certain people. Patrick Gleeson was 28 when he was brutally gunned down.
NENAGH COMMEMORATION
There will be a commemoration to remember Volunteer Patrick Gleeson held by the North Tipperary Republican Commemoration Committee in Lisboney Graveyard on Sunday, March 5, at 1pm. All are welcome to attend.